Republic of Mining

Digging for green minerals a priority for the North, says federal minister – by Liny Lamberink (CBC News North – October 17, 2022)

October 19, 2022

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

N.W.T. MLA says sentiment amounts to call for deregulation of mining

Speeding up the regulatory process for critical mineral mines in the North is a goal of the federal government, according to Canada’s natural resources minister.

“Critical minerals are essential for us to be able to successfully execute an energy transition,” said Jonathan Wilkinson. If Canada doesn’t mine more critical minerals, he said, it can’t make batteries for electric vehicles needed to reduce emissions from transportation.

Dirty metals for clean cars: Indonesian nickel could be key to EV battery industry – by Erwida Maulia (Nikkei Asia – October 19, 2022)

October 19, 2022

https://asia.nikkei.com/

Rich nickel reserves attract Chinese investment but environmental hurdles remain

JAKARTA/MOROWALI, Indonesia — A group of fishermen and their wives looked forlorn on the porch of their stilt houses, perched on the sandy coast of Indonesia’s remote Bahodopi district.

Their homes, along with the few dozen others that make up the fishing hamlet, stood against a backdrop of towering cranes and billowing white smoke from the chimneys of Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP), a sprawling nickel processing complex in Central Sulawesi province that hosts an array of Chinese companies and their partners, led by stainless steel giant Tsingshan Holding Group.

Communities on the Move: Greenstone set to thrive with gold mine construction – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – October 19, 2022)

October 19, 2022

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Northwestern municipality looks to sync up with the supply chain economy for local gold mine and the Ring of Fire

Gold stands to bring Greenstone back in a big way. Four kilometres south of the community of Geraldton at the intersection of Highways 11 and 584, construction is underway to breathe life back into a former gold mining property. It stands to be transformative for this largely rural municipality in northwestern Ontario, 275 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.

Since a groundbreaking ceremony last October, Greenstone Gold Mines, a joint venture between Equinox Gold and Orion Mine Finance, has been clearing trees and blasting rock to dig an open-pit mine on the site of the historic Macleod-Cockshutt Mine.

There’s a Billion-Dollar Bidding War for EV Plants Across the US – by Gabrielle Coppola (Bloomberg News – October 13, 2022)

October 19, 2022

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer wasn’t happy. Ford Motor Co., a company whose very name is synonymous with Detroit, had just announced it had chosen two southern states, Tennessee and Kentucky, as sites for an $11 billion electric-vehicle project.

They had won Ford over by dangling huge incentives, and Whitmer knew Michigan needed to do more to compete. So she pleaded with lawmakers in a letter last October to put “more tools in our economic toolbox to attract private investment.” Two months later, they delivered, handing her a $1 billion fund for corporate subsidies. And a month after that, Whitmer dipped into the fund to net a giant deal from General Motors Co.: a $6.6 billion electric-truck factory and battery plant.

U.S. says Chinese lithium-ion batteries are made with child labour as trade war spills into EVs – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – October 18, 2022)

October 19, 2022

https://financialpost.com/

Experts say it’s a subtle example of how the U.S. intends to offset Beijing’s influence over a once-in-a-lifetime technological change

The U.S. government’s decision to tie a generous electric-vehicle subsidy to inputs from friendly countries was an obvious attempt to shift the EV supply chains away from China.

But the power of the purse isn’t the only strategy available to Washington. The Biden administration in late September added lithium-ion batteries from China to the U.S. Labor Department’s list of products derived from child and forced labour, a more subtle example of how the United States intends to offset Beijing’s influence over a once-in-a-lifetime technological change, some industry insiders say.

Analyst: “green hydrogen” is a bunch of hot air – by Joan Baxter (Halifax Examiner – October 19, 2022)

October 19, 2022

https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/

The Nova Scotia government is going all-in on “green hydrogen,” but a leading analyst says hydrogen is “starting to look like an economic bubble.”

Last Wednesday, the keynote speaker at the opening of the World Hydrogen Congress in Rotterdam told hundreds of attendees that, “hydrogen is starting to look like an economic bubble.”

Five days later, on Monday, Nova Scotia Natural Resources and Renewables Minister Tory Rushton gushed in a press release that, “Green hydrogen is a clean-burning fuel that can help with our transition to green, renewable energy in circumstances where fossil fuels cannot easily be replaced.”

Canadian firm Iamgold sells mining interests in Suriname (Jamaica-Gleaner – October 19, 2022)

October 19, 2022

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/

IAMGOLD Corporation of Canada announced on Tuesday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its 95 per cent stake in the Rosebel mines in Suriname to Zijin Mining Group Company Limited of China.

In a statement, IAMGOLD, which also operates mines in Burkina Faso and Canada, said sale is for a cash consideration of US$360 million and includes the release of IAMGOLD’s equipment lease liabilities in Rosebel Gold Mines NV amounting to approximately US$41 million.

Diane Francis: Canada is a lightweight nation – by Diane Francis (Financial Post -October 17, 2022)

October 19, 2022

https://financialpost.com/

OPEC kicked the United States, the West, and the world’s poorest nations in the teeth recently with oil production cuts that will raise prices to help finance Russia’s war against Ukraine and Europe. And what has Canada done to help allay this situation, given that it is a country with one of the biggest oil and gas reserves on the planet?

There’s no indication that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau phoned President Joe Biden immediately offering to help the global economy and war effort by shipping two million more barrels of oil a day to the U.S. Has he offered to build a natural gas pipeline and LNG projects in Eastern Canada to help Germany and Europe permanently replace Russian gas?

Canada’s ‘tenuous hold’ in Arctic could be challenged by Russia, China, says top soldier – by Murray Brewstar (CBC News Politics – October 18, 2022)

October 19, 2022

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/

Gen. Wayne Eyre said that while the threat isn’t immediate, it’s out there

Canada’s hold on the outer reaches of its Arctic territory is “tenuous” and will face significant challenges from both Russia and China in the future, the country’s top military commander warned a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

Gen. Wayne Eyre, the chief of the defence staff, told the House of Commons defence committee — which has embarked on a study of the country’s security posture in the region — that the Far North does not face an immediate threat.

Death toll rises to 41 in Turkey coal mine explosion – by MEHMET GUZEL and ZEYNEP BILGINSOY (ABC News/Associated Press – October 15, 2022)

October 19, 2022

https://abcnews.go.com/

AMASRA, Turkey — Funerals for miners killed in a coal mine explosion in northern Turkey began Saturday as officials raised the death toll to at least 41 people.

Desperate relatives had waited all night in the cold outside the state-owned Turkish Hard Coal Enterprise’s (TTK) mine in the town of Amasra, in the Black Sea coastal province of Bartin, hoping for news. There were 110 miners working several hundred meters below ground at the time of the explosion on Friday evening.

Congolese NGOs decry mining in main refuge of ‘Africa’s unicorn’ – by Erikas Mwisi Kambale (Reuters – October 19, 2022)

October 19, 2022

https://www.reuters.com/

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo Oct 18 (Reuters) – Illegal gold-mining is destroying tracts of pristine rainforest in Congo’s Okapi Wildlife Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site meant to be a haven for the endangered mammal nicknamed Africa’s unicorn, environmental organisations warned on Tuesday.

Industrial activities are supposed to be banned in the 13,000 square kilometers of the reserve in northeast Democratic Republic of Congo. Aerial photo evidence shows mining has persisted, the civil society groups said at a joint news conference to mark the international day of the okapi.

The Drift: ‘Landmark’ project to boost Vale’s nickel production by 10,000 tonnes annually – by Lindsay Kelly (Northern Ontario Business – October 14, 2022)

October 14, 2022

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

South Mine expansion called key link in supply of critical minerals for EV production

Vale’s $945-million expansion of its South Mine near Sudbury will be a key driver in the production of critical metals for the province’s battery electric vehicle (BEV) industry and ensure continued local operations for years to come.

That was the word from Deshnee Naidoo, Vale’s executive vice-president of base metals, who was on hand at the company’s Copper Cliff Complex on Oct. 13 to officially mark the opening of the mine expansion.

Southeast Asia’s Biggest Economy Needs $37 Billion to Shut Coal-Fired Plants – by Eko Listiyorini (Bloomberg News – October 12, 2022)

October 14, 2022

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Indonesia may only need $37 billion to shut down its coal-fired power plants, even if the bill doesn’t include building renewable energy to take their place.

That $37 billion worth of financing would be enough to buy out future revenues of 118 existing coal plants and up to 10 years of contracted coal power generation, meaning Southeast Asia’s largest economy could wean off the fuel by 2040, climate analytics company TransitionZero said in a report. That’s a decade earlier than the official target.

New mining geophysics firm sets up shop in Sudbury – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – October 13, 2022)

October 14, 2022

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Being located in the ‘Canada’s mining centre’ prompted move north for Wireline Services Group (Canada)

Wireline Services Group (WSG) got its start more than 20 years ago working in the historic Kambalda nickel and gold mining region of Western Australia. Now the Perth-headquartered mining tech company has established a firm foothold in Canada’s preeminent nickel mining camp.

The geophysics company recently moved into a spacious 7,500-square-foot office and shop on Valleyview Road in Val Caron last month, hiring two locals and transplanting two others from Toronto.

Turquoise Hill’s fifth largest investor to reject Rio Tinto’s takeover bid – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – October 14, 2022)

October 14, 2022

https://www.mining.com/

Sailingstone Capital Partners, the fifth-biggest investor in Turquoise Hill Resources (TSX: TQR) said on Friday it will vote against Rio Tinto’s (ASX, LON: RIO) intended $3.3 billion takeover of the Canadian miner, in a shareholder meeting on Nov. 1.

The activist investor said that Rio’s bid not only undervalues the target, but it also intends to take advantage of the “material governance failures” created by independent directors of both mining companies over the last decade.